Day of the Donut

How did I miss this? Day of the Donut is on in Sydney on Saturday 30/7 and I've only just heard about it. I have checked out the flights down to Sydney but alas there are no bargains :-(

My niece and I love a good donut and would have loved to have checked this event out luckily for us we're going down to Sydney in September for the Festival of Chocolate!

We got truly hooked on donuts when I came across a facebook page for Doughheads Donuts in Newcastle. For months and months we would tag each other with images of delicious looking donuts. Finally, about 6 months worth of drooling, we made it to Newcastle! Unfortunately I wasn't very well and only got a bit of a Top Deck donut (which was yum) but the others enjoyed a couple of donuts including the original glazed and said they were definitely worth the drive!

Doughhead Donuts - Glazed and Top Deck

We're continually on the lookout for new donut places and have had a few since our Doughheads doughy - some good, some disappointing. Many donut places have popped up over the last 12 months so it's no wonder there is now a Day of the Donut!! In Sydney we came across Short Stop Cafe who had a yummy range of donuts on display - so what's one to do but try one. We had the Boston which is a donut filled with delicious vanilla cream custard topped with chocolate ganache, yum!

Short Stop Cafe Barangaroo - Boston Donut

Are you a donut fan? I think they've come a long way since the traditional cinnamon donut became popular. I still don't mind a hot cinnamon doughy but do find them a bit dense and quite often but they are nice with a hot cup of coffee or hot chocolate.

What's your favourite donut? Do you have a regular donut shop you visit?

Jacqui ~ Rainbow Designs head donut lover

National Pyjama Day

Apparently today is national pyjama day* which means you can wear your pj's all day without guilt or recrimination! :-) My nephew asked me the other day, just as we were heading out, if I was going to change out of my pyjamas? I wasn't wearing my jammies but he quite bluntly said 'well it looks like you are'! (note: I didn't change!) So today I'm fine, I can wear my REAL pj's out into the real world and no-on can stop me!

I have to admit I don't particularly want to wear my pj's outside my own house but I would be very happy to laze about in them all day! Jammies are so comfy aren't they?? In having said that though, I did buy a pair of pants the other week which 'technically' are pyjama pants but I wear them as 'real' pants. No-one will know right? Right??

Have you ever just stayed in your pj's even if you had to go out? I've read many a story of mum's picking up their kiddies in the pyjama's. I'm sure the kids LOVED that! ha ha

Jacqui ~ head pj wearing honcho at Rainbow Designs

* By wearing your favourite PJ’s and by making a donation, you’ll be helping to make a difference to the lives of  foster children.

Who ate my Kit Kat?

Do you ever buy yourself a treat, especially when you're at the supermarket and they're half price, and put it in the fridge or cupboard for later? I have been known to do this :-) I always like to have a special sweet treat awaiting me and even better is when you forget you bought it and come across it when searching for something yummy to eat! It's like Christmas.

The other week I bought a couple of sweet treats and left them in the crisper of my fridge (that's what it's there for right??) one being a Kit Kat. I quite like Kit Kats and I kept it there for a 'special treat' and had planned on eating it on Sunday evening while relaxing in front of the TV. Do you know what happened?

I'd been thinking about it all afternoon, wishing the time away, dreaming of the moment I will get my little mitts on in. It was a loooooong afternoon ;-) So you can guess, by the blog title, how guttered I was when I finally allow myself to go to the fridge and get my crispy Kit Kat from the crisper and find (well not find actually) it GONE!! I searched every inch of the fridge, even looking in the freezer, to no avail. Someone had eaten my Kit Kat! Who would do such a thing??? I was sad and then annoyed and maybe a little bit angry. I had been so good all week and resisted eating it so I could really enjoy it on Sunday evening only to find some little bugger had already beaten me to it!! The hide of them.

I have a VERY good idea on who STOLE my Kit Kat and have since found a different place for MY chocolatey treats.

So have you ever had anyone steal a special treat that you had been saving for yourself? It's heartbreaking isn't it :-(

Jacqui ~ hider of chocolate

Cadbury Lamington - New

I've just received my weekly roll of 'junk' mail and inside was something amazing! The Woolworths catalogue, not amazing in itself, but inside the Woollies catalogue was an ad for a NEW Cadbury chocolate bar!! Last week it was Coles with the Apple Crumble (which I did partake in and was very underwhelmed) and this week it's the Lamington block! Sounds delicious and definitely something I'll have to get my little mitts on! Not sure if it's just available in Woolworths, will have to pop into Coles and IGA and see if they've got it too.

I love trying new flavours, although I didn't rush out and buy the Vegemite one! I did have a taste of it from a family member who bought it, not my thing. Not awful but I'd rather plain or black forest any day. I guess it's a great marketing ploy more than anything and it appears to work, especially with the Vegemite flavour, that went off on social media!!

Have you tried it yet? Verdict. Better than the Apple Crumble? What flavour would you love Cadbury to make?

3 Ideas for Keeping Warm

I feel the cold. Possibly because I'm of a slim build but I just know that I have always felt the cold. My hands are always cold even on a nice warm day, bad circulation most likely.

Anyway, 3 things I have found to help keep the cold a bay for me and am currently doing or using daily at the moment!

1. Clothing (obviously!) - socks (knee high), singlet top and a light long sleeve top under WHATEVER I am wearing, slippy boots (for home only - never for public!)

2. Sunny spot - open the blinds/curtains as early as possible and let the rays inside
2b. If there is no sun a steaming hot cup of coffee/tea hits the (sunny) spot and is also great for warming your hands!

3. Heat pack - these are wonderful, possibly just like a hot water bottle. I have one which I've had for ever and use it on those really cold days where I just can't get warm. Especially on those cloudy, rainy days where the sun doesn't make an appearance. I heat mine in the microwave for 3-3 1/2 minutes and the warmth lasts for hours! This is also great for evenings when I'm snuggled under my blanket on the lounge - the blanket holds in the heat all night. Sometimes it's so toasty I don't want to go to bed!

Hibernating

I feel like I've gone into hibernation, not intentional, well I don't think it is. I've been spending a lot of time in my own company and must admit that I'm a bit over it! This is one of the things that can take a bit to get use to when you work for yourself and don't have staff, as such. I do work with a group of lovely people but not in the face to face kind of way. Pretty much all communication is via email. A benefit of this is it doesn't matter what I'm wearing or how bad a hair day I'm having :-)

Sometimes I just need some 'human' contact so head outside to the shops, generally just Coles, but that's enough. To feel part of the world and the town I live in can just mean walking down the main street, buying a custard tart and sitting in the sun by the river. Most days, I must admit, I just find a nice sunny spot indoors, grab my laptop and work away until I need a coffee or maybe some chocolate - there's always both of these in my place!

It is very easy to become very insulated and block yourself off from the world when you work from home and by yourself but try not to let this happen. It can be very hard to get yourself 'out and about' and you're liable to forget the art of conversation. I can go a week without actually speaking to anyone, all my communication is either online or by text. Sometimes I just have a little old conversation with myself just to make sure my vocal cords still work!!

I do love running my own business but I am very aware that I need to push myself to be involved in the 'real' world otherwise I will turn into a hermit and start talking to my rainbow teddy bears ;-) plus there's the great possibility that I'll find myself in Coles wearing my slippers!!

Do you love your own company or prefer the noise and constant chatter of other people around you?

Jacqui ~ Rainbow Designs head hermit

Gifts sent near and far

Now we've sent a lot of gifts over the last 12 years and it got me thinking, where is the most popular place they've been sent to? My guess is somewhere in NSW or VIC, narrows it down a bit but still a pretty big area. Another question I had was where is the most furtherest (yes, it is a word!) that one of our gifts has been sent to. I do remember a few years ago one being sent to Christmas Island, so I'm thinking that may be the gift that's covered the most distance but who's next? Somewhere in WA or NT I guess.

I started digging and doing some searching and this is what I came up with:

Most popular area: Seems to be the inner suburbs of Sydney - seeing as so many people live in that area it's not a huge surprise.

(2nd) most furtherest: Port Hedland in WA is approximately 5,313km from Murwillumbah! Google says it would take me about 35 days to walk it, not likely lovey!! It's approx 11hours by plane and 57hours by road - plane it is :-)

and then I thought it would be fun to see if we had sent a gift from a to z - ie a gift to a town starting with a, b, c, d etc You get the idea??

My findings were very interesting. I love a bit of useless trivia :-)

We've sent to all letters of the alphabet except one, can you guess which one??

X!

If you know anyone who lives in Xantippe WA how about you send them a lovely hamper from us ;-)

Far and wide our gifts do travel, I wouldn't mind travelling along with some of them and seeing more of our lovely country. Might head north and make my way around the top of Oz, zip down the middle and checkout Ayres Rock, then across to Perth and follow that around to Adelaide and over to Melbourne and then back up to NSW. Just need a chauffeur now, any takers??

Music to work by

I always have music playing while I'm working, helps keep me moving. It can vary to what I listen to. Lately it's been Double J (using my TV) and as I don't have a radio, one day I'll get one, the other musical option is my phone. I generally just put it on random and let it decide what my musical day should sound like. I've got a few Triple J compilations, some pop compilations, Kasey Chambers, Linkin Park, Powder Finger......... a bit of a mix really. My mood can dictate what I feel like listening to, sometimes I'm in a bit of a funk, so I go with it and play hard, aggressive music and other times it's nice to have some fluffy pop music :-)

Do you like to listen to music while you work or prefer silence?

Beginning of a New financial year!

Really, a new financial year, really??? Why do some weeks seem to drag on but bas and tax time seem to come around so flippin' fast??? I don't have an answer, maybe it's because I always put them off so by the time I get them done the next lot is almost due!

I have been trying a lot harder to get my statements etc sent off to my patient bookkeepers on time or at least weeks not months after they are requested! On my part it's not actually that hard. I don't really need to do anything except download statements and email them off, no adding or calculating needed at all. So I don't really have any excuse for my tardiness except laziness and lack of motivation. Although a big old fine should be motivation enough!

My goal from now on is to stay relatively organised and ensure all my tax obligations up kept up to date. You can keep me accountable ;-)

I had a deadline for myself this year, which funnily enough was today, on whether or not I would close down Rainbow Designs. I thought it would make things easier to wrap up if I closed at the end of the financial year and not part way through. So, the time has come. What am I going to do? Is it the end of Rainbow Designs?

Click this link to find out if we're still around >>>>>>>>>> To be or not to be

On an even more personal note, thinking of you grandma. Miss you. xx